Ok, so I went through all the rear ends we have laying around the shop last night. 8" from a Shoebox, 8" from a '64 Mustang, and an 8.8. So I have the fixtures for the 8.8, but it's got a limited slip, and it's kinda overkill for the current project. The two 8" rears are appropriate, but I don't have the fixtures for my axle narrowing jig to center the diff on them. Here's the question, for those of you that care about your pinion being centered when you build a hot rod, would you want to use a Shoebox axle (period correct) AND get it modified to have a centered pinion? Your responses will help me decide wether to get the fixtures machined or not.
The 8" Mustang diff should have a centered pinion already. Or are you talking about getting the housing itself centered?
The pinion on all ford axles (at least as far as I know) is not centered, due to the offset of the motor from 1949 up. Later fords are only 1/2", with all the way up to 1 7/8" on the Ford Explorer 4x4 8.8 axle. I've found out that the early 8" is a 17 spline axle all the way up through something like 1966, I know at least 1965 for sure. I pulled down the mustang axle and an axle from a '53 Ford (pulled it out of the car myself), both are 17 spline. Moser Engineering said they could do it, but would need one of the spider gears. We've decided to just go with the 8.8 we have. They already have the specs on that and it's less hassle this close to the Pile Up.
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